If you start looking into claims about the origins of many common phrases, you find that many of those claims are essentially theories or myths that were made up at some point and then repeated.
Other phrase “origins” are based on the earliest example recorded in the venerable Oxford English Dictionary
Now, by using resources like Google Books, it is much easier to verify — or disprove — claims about the “first use” of phrases.
And, it’s not uncommon to find out that what has long been cited as the origin or earliest recorded use of a phrase is neither.
For example, many books and websites say that the term “a self-made man” was coined by the American politician Henry Clay (1777-1852).
While serving as the U.S. Senator for Kentucky, Clay made a speech on the floor of the Senate on February 2, 1832 in which he said:
“In Kentucky, almost every manufactory known to me, is in the hands of enterprising and self-made men, who have acquired whatever wealth they possess by patient and diligent labor.”
The Oxford English Dictionary lists this as the first recorded use of the term “self-made men.”
The writers of a number of history books have assumed that this was the origin of not only “self-made men” but “self-made man” and claimed that it was.
So, if you Google “Henry Clay” + coined + “self-made man” you find many sources that say Henry Clay coined the term “self-made man.”But, in fact, he didn’t.
Another great online research tool, NewspaperArchive.com, has searchable PDF copies of American newspapers going back to the early 1700s.
I did a search in NewspaperArchive.com and found an earlier use of “self-made man.”
It’s in a letter signed by a “Prof. Newman” that was published in the October 9, 1828 issue of the Delaware Advertiser and Farmer's Journal.
The heading above the letter is “A SELF MADE MAN” (with no hyphen).
Newman’s letter is about Roger Sherman (1721–1793), the Connecticut statesman and politician who served on the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence and later served as Connecticut’s Senator in the new U.S. Congress.
Professor Newman’s letter notes that Sherman rose from humble beginnings to “the Halls of our Congress” and “was a self made man.”
So, while the term “a self-made man” is associated with the date February 2nd, the reason for the association is that it has long been believed that Henry Clay’s speech on February 2, 1932 was the origin of the term.
I have now blown that theory.
Stop the presses on the next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary! I have an edit…
